Kiran

I live in Boarhead West. And on the other side, in Boarhead East, live the scarfies, turbans and beards. In between us, there's a great big graveyard. There used to be a textile mill where the graveyard ended - my granddad worked there. The mill's gone now. The graveyard took it over. It's where the Muslims are buried. In the middle is a roofless church, with a huge weeping willow tree near it. That's where the Willow Tree Mob, the WTM, hang out.

In this Northern English town of mine, especially during the long summer days like now, when the sun shone well into the night, I was happy. I belonged. I had my gang, and nobody bothered me. But then I woke up and couldn't work out who I was.

It all started a few weeks after my fourteenth birthday. I was hiding from Mum in my bedroom, listening to Lady Gaga on my headphones. I had a poster of her on my wall, wearing high-heeled, snake-skin shoes. A great big green snake with black stripes, almost as thick as her waist, crossed her legs and went under her back. An orange snake with black patches curled around her neck and slithered across the green one towards her waist, looping around her neck.

The poster covered half the wall opposite my bed. It was huge. It was awesome. It was perfect. It stopped my thoughts from flying out of my bedroom and banging on Donna's head and asking her, 'What did I ever do to you?'

I turned away from Lady Gaga and pushed my head into my pillow. I had washed my face so many times, trying to clean off the cross that Donna had drawn on my forehead; I could smell the soap from my pillow.

I then turned over onto my back. The crack in the ceiling that ran from one end of my bedroom to the other jeered down at me. I heard Mum come out of her room and walk down the stairs. She called out to me when she got to the bottom, but I didn't answer her. I didn't answer her. I could still see an image of Jake, standing under the willow tree, watching, just watching as Donna drew the cross on my forehead. The words she hissed rang in my ears: 'Now you are a Christian.' It hurt when she started but the pain stopped when the other girls laughed. I begged them to stop, but they just laughed and laughed. I wanted to scream but instead I laughed as well.

'Leave me alone,' I said aloud, tossing over again, hoping to chase the memories out of my head. 'You'll feel better in the morning, girl,' I assured myself.

Little did I know how wrong I would be.

It was nearly midday when I got my head out from under my quilt. Mum had knocked on the door a few times, and I had grunted in reply and gone back to sleep. Yesterday felt like a bad dream. I had forgotten to draw the curtains last night, so the sun lit up my room. A ray of light shone up on Lady Gaga.

I rubbed my forehead. I could still feel Donna's pen going up and down and across. The memory of yesterday came flooding back to me. I had wanted to get away from the heavy silence of it. Mum and Dad had stopped talking to each other and I had gone to see my gang. The quickest way to get to the old church was through the broken railings of the Muslim side of the graveyard. I could have walked over the railings but didn't. I took a running jump instead, stumbled and fell. As I was getting up off the ground, I heard them laugh.

Shamshad Ali, a big, busty scarfie who goes to the same school as me and who hates my guts, was pointing at me. Laila Khan was sitting next to her on a bench not far from where I had fallen and Aisha Sadiq, wearing a black tracksuit top and bottom, was doing stretches, touching the ground and standing up again.

My backside was up in the air. I stood up, brushed the dirt off my skirt and wanted to die. A sharp pain ran down my right leg. I tried not to limp but couldn't help it.

After a bit of jogging on the spot, Aisha said something to Shamshad and then ran towards me, shouldering me as she ran past and out of the graveyard.

To get to the old church I had to go on the path that went right past them. As I got closer, Shamshad stood up, blocked my way and said, 'What's with you here?'

I looked at her ugly face and wanted to say, 'Does it belong to you?' Instead, I smiled sheepishly and said, 'Nothing!'

I slowed right down, thinking, 'How could you just say, nothing? Why didn't you tell her, "What do you think? You think you own everything? You think you're better because you're Muslim?"'

'Kali Gori,' Shamshad said, sizing me up.

I stopped.

'You're white inside, aren't you?' Shamshad tutted, pointing to her arm. 'But brown, like me.'

I kept quiet.

Shamshad came towards me, saying, 'Oreo.'

'I like Oreos.' I knew I shouldn't have said this even as the words came out of my mouth.

Shamshad looked at Laila and the two of them laughed. I didn't find anything funny but I laughed as well. Just then, I caught a glimpse of Donna and the gang. I waved at them. Shamshad stepped aside and I ran past her.

No one in the gang greeted me when I got to them. Jake stood on his own, under the flowing branches of the tree, kicking the trunk gently. Megan and Chloe stood on either side of Donna. Megan had her arms folded across her chest and Chloe played with a twirl of her blonde hair. Donna glared at me like I was dirt.

'Alright, Don?' I asked.

Megan scratched her back and gaped at Donna.

Donna ignored me and nodded for Megan and Chloe to follow her; they walked towards a hedge close to me. I went up to Jake and asked, 'What's with everyone?'

He grabbed hold of a small branch in his fist and stripped the leaves off it.

'Ouch, that must have hurt, Jake,' I said.

'It's our Dex,' Jake said, tossing the leaves to the ground.

Before he could say anything else, Donna pushed Laila through the hedge and came out holding Shamshad by the wrist. Laila stumbled and fell. Ripping the hijab off Shamshad's head, Donna said, 'Spying on us, eh?'

'Oh please don't,' Shamshad cried, trying to get the hijab back. 'Me Dad'll kill me!'

'Me Dad'll kill me!' Chloe mimicked, snatching the hijab from Donna and waving it just out of Shamshad's reach.

Donna's impersonation of Shamshad, especially with her Pakistani accent, was so good I couldn't help but laugh. I laughed all the louder remembering what Shamshad had said to me earlier.

'Stop it, Donna,' Jake said, coming out from under the tree. 'Give it back to her.'

Donna ignored Jake, just as she had ignored me, and kept waving the hijab in front of Shamshad. 'I said give it back to her,' Jake repeated, stepping towards Donna.

Donna stared at Jake for a moment and then screwed up the hijab and threw it into a bush. As Shamshad retrieved her hijab, Laila told Donna, 'You're just a coward at heart, aren't you?'

Donna clenched her fists and turned towards Laila. I had seen her batter people when she was like this. I quickly stepped in between her and Laila, and said, 'That's enough, Donna.'

Donna grabbed me by the shoulders, and hissed, 'Whose side are you on?'

As I stepped away from Donna, I saw Shamshad and Laila run down the path away from us.

When they were out of sight, Donna held up a pretend gun and pointed it towards me, saying, 'Bang! Bang! Bang!'

'What's up with everyone?' I sighed.

Donna put her hand into her trouser pocket, pulled out a photograph and squatted onto the ground. She kissed the photograph and started crying.

Megan went up to Donna, took the...